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Sizes and shapes of salt fingers near the marginal state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2006

C. F. Chen  and
R. D. Sandford
C. F. Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
R. D. Sandford
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
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Abstract

Experiments were carried out to investigate the onset, size and shape of fingers in a salt–sugar two-component system. The results on the critical Rayleigh number ratio for the marginal state agree well with the prediction of the linear stability theory of Stern (1960). The theory also predicts that the fingers at the marginal state should be as wide as the layer thickness. In our experiments, in a layer of approximately 3·5 cm deep, the fingers, when they appeared, were always long and narrow, with typical lateral dimensions of approximately 1 mm.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , 7 December 1976 , pp. 601 - 607
Copyright
© 1976 Cambridge University Press

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